Jean Ford

Jean Ford
came to Nevada in 1962. She was born in Oklahoma in 1929, and raised
in Missouri. Ford graduated from Oklahoma College for Women in 1951,
then went to work for the Red Cross. She met and married a physician
while working in Hawaii; the Fords moved to Las Vegas in 1962, and Jean
Ford started her life in Nevada as wife, mother, and homemaker.

Over the years Ford moved
into the public sphere and became an activist, legislator, business woman,
and educator. Jean Ford worked in community groups in Las Vegas and
was active in the League of Women Voters, working with the State Parks
Commission and the Clark County Library. She served in the Assembly
in 1973 and 1975. She was a State Senator for the 1979 and 1988 legislative
sessions. Ford was involved in the women's rights movement in the
1970s and 1980s and worked for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which
failed in the Nevada legislature in 1973, 1975, and in 1977.

Jean Ford was also active
in establishing the Women's Studies program at the University of Nevada
Reno, and supported collection of materials useful for research of the
history of women in Nevada. Ford died in August, 1998.